Nameed steps up onto the small porch and turns to her smiling softly, “You saw what I wanted you to see, what was necessary. I have been waiting for you, Elina. I knew you were coming, but I didn’t know when. It has been a long ten years.”
“You knew I was going to… that Malach would die to protect me?” she asks with shock on her face.
“No, don’t misunderstand me, Elina. Our Father gave you the freedom of choice, I had a plan for multiple possibilities. I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but here we are. After Malach pushed you away the battle was fierce, but he didn’t stand a chance against so many. He knew if you stayed all would be lost. He believed that everything happens according to God’s plan and so do I, it’s time for you to believe it too.”
Elina looks away as she struggles with exhaustion, shame and fear.
“In three days, I will return to you and offer you a chance to rectify One moment, One choice in your past. Choose carefully, Keeper.” Nameed’s smile fades and his eyes turn serious. “Elina your choice must be made regardless of your feelings.”
Elina’s turquoise eyes fill with tears and she sobs out, “I have made so many mistakes, how will I choose who should live or die? I am flawed.”
“No, you are human. Ask yourself what would make Malach proud? What would make your family proud? When you stand before our Father on the Day of Judgment, will it be with pride or shame? Right or wrong the choice must be yours. You will find all you need inside. Rest easy, you are safe here.”
Nameed spreads his striped wings and leaps into the air flying away, leaving Elina to her thoughts. She sits on the steps and wraps her arms around herself, listening to the ocean, she watches the sunset and heads inside her sanctuary.
Chapter 11
How does one choose a moment out of their lifetime to relive? It is like pulling a thread on a quilt, if she chooses the wrong thread, the whole thing could unravel and the world would never be the same. Inside the small cottage Elina finds a small galley kitchen, stocked with food and water. A small living room and a covered porch on the back of the house. She roams through the empty rooms and down a hallway into a bedroom and bathroom.
On the queen size bed Elina finds a Holy Bible. It’s not just any bible, but her family bible! She touches it reverently running her fingers over the worn brown leather. She can hear her Uncle Ronnie’s deep voice reading to her from its weathered pages and she smiles through her tears.
Sitting on the bed Elina opens the bible and traces the names inside. Reverently she traces her name scrawled in her mother’s beautiful script, it reads Elina, beloved daughter. Now holding the bible tightly against her chest, Elina cries herself to sleep.
Exhausted, she sleeps until the sun breaks through the window in her room the next morning. Elina rises with the sun, grabs a shower and decides to walk. Ruby always said exercise cleared the mind and strengthened the body.
“Well, I certainly need a clear mind now.”
She sifts through the memories Alexandria showed her and she sees the moments that could have changed everything.
The first moment that comes to mind is the moment the book was created. If she could go back in time to the moment they separated each piece of the book and put them in the jars, she could prevent all of this from happening in the first place.
She stops suddenly remembering that Nameed said her lifetime. With a deep sigh, she continues walking in the morning sun, enjoying the squish of the sand through her toes.
When Raphaim first attacked her village, she was a girl. If she goes back to the exact moment before he comes, she can kill him and none of this will have happened. Then she will never lose her parents or the villagers.
“Except, Elina, you forget that the Mocker was also in the village. Great, now I am talking to myself. He could be mocking as anyone and I would be giving him what he wanted all along, the Keeper. Moving along then.” She walks to the edge of the shore and enjoys the feel of the water rushing over her feet.
Maybe the pyramid when her power failed her. She could kill Raphaim and prevent him from taking the scroll. How about when he followed her to the cave and battles her and Malach. Or, the moment when he gets to the house and meets the baby, finding the scroll.
Elina sinks into the sand and watches the ocean, quietly thinking. So many moments of her life and Raphaim’s are woven together like a fine tapestry. Removing one could cause a ripple across all of the other moments, destroying her family or delivering the other parts of the book into the enemy’s hands.
Maybe she is blaming Raphaim when she should be looking at her own choices. “Your greed, envy, and lust Keeper,” echoes in her mind.
Horror fills her mind when she realizes the truth in the statement. When Malach told her to go, she disobeyed not because of her fear for him, but because she was beginning to doubt. She was greedy! She wanted to have it all, save humanity and have a life with Malach, but that was never an option.
Elina lifts her face to the sky and begs for forgiveness, now with a true understanding.
“Father, I have broken the covenant I made, I have broken your laws, and my sins have separated me from you. I am sorry… I am sorry,” she sobs. “Please forgive me, please wash my spirit clean and send your Holy Spirit to
